I have had some success with bootable CF card creation so I'm writing the notes up here for others to follow. I'm now using the 2.0 beta iso.

As I have mentioned above, I had been trying to use the Superfloppy mode as I thought I had initial success with that on my hardware. With the recent isos I didn't have success with that mode (probably not due to anything in the iso itself, but human error.....).
I went back to using the standard partition-based arrangement (ie. not Superfloppy)and that works.

Below follows a set of instructions to make a FAT16 based bootable CF card:

* Begin with a CF card formatted with one FAT16 partition (I used my digital camera to format the card).
* Start the Puppy Installer.
* Select 'CF card which will be later moved to IDE adapter'
* Select the device that the card is present at (mine is sdc). Note that the 2.0 beta iso 'probedisk' still has an issue, it reports multiple devices as /dev/sd2. I recommend probedisk3 as posted above.
* The dialog regarding normal or Superfloppy mode now comes up. Select the Second button down (ie. to partition the card). The top button (Superfloppy) now does not work for me at all, even though 'I believe' it used to.
* Select '_vfat'. Again, I have tried the ext3 button but with no success.
* A dialog box now appears with "You have chosen to install Grafpup to /dev/sdc1 which has a vfat format and the size is M. Files will be written to /dev/sdc1 and Syslinux will be used to make it bootable." Note there is no free disk space reported, just 'M'.
* Press OK and tell Grafpup where the files are (I'm normally on CD).
* Press Enter as required in the orange window.

This should result in a bootable CF card (vfat mode). I guess the printing of just 'M' where a free space figure should be, needs attention.

In the past I think I had success with an ext3 format card, but I don't remember what I did! I was also using a 200703xx vintage iso.

Hi Guys, I was thinking of trying to boot from a new 2gh SD card.
( only about £8 from Dabs!)
I would like to use the built in card reader on my dell laptop, which is more convenient as I would not have to have an adapter plugged in. Can I do that or do I have to use an ide adapter? What is the procedure to install the latest probedisk3, and is it likely to pick up the cardreader?

I don't know if your bios will support booting from card slots, so check that first. If the bios only supports usb-boot, you will have to get a usb sd card reader anyway. Sorry!

On a laptop I doubt that you will be able to install an ide card reader either.

Anyway here are instructions if you can proceed with it:

Firstly, you will need to being up an rxvt terminal.
Insert an SD card and type 'probedisk' then Enter at the prompt to list the storage devices on your mahcine. You should see a line in the list which says " ... SD Card Adapter .... " or something similar. The /dev/xxx on that line will be the device name for the slot.

For example, my CF card slot is /dev/sdc

Older versions of probedisk can give strange device id's, which also affect the Puppy Installer script. So, it's worthwhile downloading the updated probedisk, which is here:

You'll need to save it into a temporary location (/home for example), then gunzip <filename>
Then you can type "/home/probedisk3" and observe the list of device names for your storage devices. You can find examples of mine in previous posts.

If that all works well, do "cp /home/probedisk3 /sbin/probedisk" You will need to be 'root' for that. That will update the system's copy.

Then you can run the Puppy Installer and specify that device to install to. (The installer misses off the /dev/ at the start for good readability). You can then follow my instructions in my previous post to make a FAT16 bootable card. I don't think too much will be different in the SD card case.

I can't swear that this card didn't ever have an ext3 fs on it, as I reprogrammed/formatted a lot of cards in a lot of ways. Perhaps there's a 'deleted partition' in the table which is being picked up on, or it's 'falling through' some logic.

So, if guess_fstype is used to look at /dev/sdc it says ext3, which is wrong since the card is partitioned, with the only partition being a vfat. Perhaps it can't cope with being called incorrectly (with sdc instead of sdc1)? guess_fstype is a binary so I can't have a look.

Installing probedisk3 and probepart3 in the /sbin directory, and running the Puppy Installer doesn't produce any improvements since I reported last. The dialog box showing 'what Puppy has found out about the drive' still shows sdc1 as having ext3 format.
It still completes ok as long as I follow the vfat instructions I posted before.

Mike - about the glx problem, open up /etc/X11/xorg.conf and make sure there is a line like this:

Code:

Load "glx"

Nathan

Hmmmm, that was interesting There were 2 files called xorg.conf. One had the required line of code, and the other did not. I renamed the one without to xorgwrong.conf and tried blender from the terminal. It started and seemed to run ok, but put this message up:

Blender currently doesn't support Python-2.5, which happens to be the version which is in the repo. What it is telling you is that it cannot find a python-2.4 installation, so some of the extra scripting capabilities will not work. Blender actually contains an internal Python interpreter already, so most of the functionality will be there even without installing Python.

I have considered offering a Python-2.4 package for compatibility. However, it would be largely a waste as just about everything else can use the newer version.

You were right about the lack of facility in the bios to boot from flash cards. It would still be very handy to be able to use the built in cardreader for my sony camera card and for backing up, transferring files etc. with the sd card. Probedisk3 did not see it. Maybe it is a lack of driver?
Mike

You'll need to remove the 3 from the end and replace the existing files in /sbin

Yep, did that, thanks for the hint. I think the problem with the Installer identifying vfat/ext3 may not be dependent on probedisk/probepart.

Does the Installer use guess_fstype? If it does, and it uses 'guess_fstype /dev/sdc' then the FAT16 partition in /dev/sdc1 is not identified, and guess_fstype reports ext3. This is shown above in my post yesterday.

Mike,

Quote:

It would still be very handy to be able to use the built in cardreader for my sony camera card and for backing up, transferring files etc. with the sd card. Probedisk3 did not see it. Sad Maybe it is a lack of driver?

Hmm. If they have put the cardreader hardware somewhere unconventional, ie. not on USB, then maybe a custom driver is required. You may not find one for Linux. I know nothing of laptops other than their hardware designs are often non-standard......

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